Creature Skills
Each Creature Card has three Creature Skills which add a great deal to the power and unique strengths and weaknesses of that Creature. The skills unlock as your creature levels up, with the first skill available at level 0, the second unlocking at level 5, and the third at level 10. A fourth, random skill can be added to a Creature Card via Evolution. This final skill is picked randomly and can even be a duplicate (although different level) of a skill that the Creature already possesses. This fourth skill can be altered through the Melding process, but the results are not guaranteed and the process can be very costly. General Types of Creature Skills Creature Skills offer a wide variety of addition damage, buffs, debuffs and more. Identifying and classifying these skills can help you choose the perfect creature to fit your deck and either further your strategy, fill in a weakness, or simply add massive damage. Damage Spells, Direct Damage and Damage over Time There are four types of damage in Deck Heroes: physical DMG, direct DMG, magic DMG and Damage over Time (DoT) effects. They all interact differently with the creatures and it's important to understand the differences when putting together your Deck. Damage Skills generally activate each turn before the Attack Phase of that Creature unless otherwise stated in the description. Physical DMG is only achieved on basic attacks performed by Creatures. This does not count for Retaliate or Counter or any other creature skills similar to these abilities which are classified as Direct DMG. The only skill that does seem to use "Physical DMG" is Sweeping Blow, Kitsune's Danse Macabre, Titania's Chainstrike, and Soul Shrew's Swarm. Physical DMG can be reduced with the Block, Frost Armor, and Rampart skills. Physical attacks can also be Dodged. Direct DMG is a special form of DMG that is not countered by Magic resistances like Immunity. A lot of Creature Skills that are meant to mimic physical attacks are considered Direct Damage, like Assassinate and Retaliate. There is currently no way to mitigate or avoid Direct DMG, with a minor exception of Royal Guard's Blessing Skill.. Magic DMG is generally clearly marked in the description of the skill, and is also generally a spell involving fire, ice or lightning. Its important to know that Magic DMG can be resisted and even redirected with buff skills like Immunity, Reflect, or Maji Shield. Damage Over Time effects like Blaze or Gas Cloud are treated as debuffs and not direct damage sources. Like most debuffs, they can be avoided with Immunity as if they were Magic DMG and blocked by Maji Shield and Reflect or similar effects each turn that they actually deal their damage. Damage dealt by DoTs do not cause reflected damage since the DoT effect is not directly dealt by the Creature which originally cast it. Do note that as of the 6.5.0 update, Immunity '''no longer blocks '''Blaze inflicted by Firestorm. Buffs, Stacking Buffs, Auras and Heals There are multiple types of buffs in Deck Heroes and they are often not clearly identified in the description text. The most common type of buff is a non-stacking Self-Buff which that Creature the indicated increased stats or upgrade that enhances their ATK or Defense. Another type of Self-Buff is the stacking version, which allows the effect to activate each turn or after a qualifying event such as taking damage from another Creature. The final type of buff in Deck heroes is an Aura, which is a persistent effect that targets the team but not the Creature providing the buff. Heals will activate each turn in the Creature Phase unless otherwise noted. Heals will identify their target in the description text, and generally either target themselves, the allied Creature with the most damage, or all allied Creatures. Healing can only be prevented if the creature attempting to heal has been sealed or frozen, or if the creature it is attempting to heal has been inflicted with Rip, a status effect that prevents it from being healed by magical skills. Faction Auras vs General Auras Each faction has buffs that increase ATK or HP which affect only their own kin, and offer no additional stats to Creatures of other Factions. There are, however, buffs that affect all of your creatures and ignore Factions. These buffs are much more valuable but offer less stats per Rank than their faction-specific counterparts. Currently the only known creature with these buffs is the Human 5-star Creature Pontiff, who has Safeguard 7 and Rage Boost 6. The 5-star Faen Creature, Yggdryad, also has Safeguard 7. '''A Neander 4 star, '''Wolveria, has Rage Boost 5. Consecrate, Miasma, Ravage and Bane (CMRB) There are 4 Creature Skills in Deck Heroes that create a circular, natural strength for one faction over another. These skills are powerful, increasing ATK value of creatures by a % during the Attack Phase, giving them a noticeable upper hand when fighting against that faction type. The ATK increase stacks with most other ATK buffs in the other they are presented on the card (Level 1, 5 and 10 skills). While these skills are extremely powerful against Creatures of the opposing faction, they provide no bonus to the other faction types, making these skills a weak choice for a "standing" defense or arena team, since the skill will only be effective 1/4th of the time. * Consecrate increases Human's ATK against Mortii. * Bane increases Mortii ATK against Faen. * Miasma increases Faen ATK against Neander. * Ravage increases Neander ATK against Humans. Single Use S Skills Some Creature Skills in Deck Heroes will only activate once, when the Creature is first put into play. These are called Single-Use skills and are signified on the skill by the letter S. These skills activate at the end of the Play Creatures Phase, meaning they will process before the regular creature skills. Single-Use skills are generally one-shot versions of other Creature Skills, like Curse or Blaze. One Single-Use skill that is not technically identified with the letter S is the Ambush skill, which increases the Creature's ATK for only the first round of combat. This may be because the Ambush skill activates during the Combat Phase instead of the Play Creatures Phase. Upon Death D Skills Some Creatures Skills in Deck Heroes will only activate upon the Death of the Creature. These are called Upon Death skills and are signified on the skill by the letter D. These skills activate immediately upon death during the Combat Phase, and activate whenever a Creature is sent from the Battlefield to the Graveyard. This includes through the Sacrifice ability, Hero skills, Magic and Direct Damage skills, and even the Instakill ability. These Skills will not activate if the Creature was sent to the Graveyard from the Hand or Deck, with skills like Disposal, nor will they activate if sent to the Hand or Deck from the Battlefield, through skills like Retreat. Upon Death skills will activate, however, even if the Creature activates Rebirth, since they technically went to the Graveyard first. Some Upon Death skill that are not identified with the letter D are the Rebirth Skill and the Detonate Skill. Revival Skills These are powerful skills which can bring dead creatures straight back to the field, instead of sending them back to your hand or deck. Due to them being way better than Recycle, they are highly sought after abilities. For more information, see Revival Skills. List of Creature Skills Category:Creature Skills